I'm in CT and although it's cold, I caught a bunch of trout last weekend at a river that's kind of near my house.  

Question: do you think I'd be able to catch any at night time, or are they really dormant and inactive at night?  

I need to catch some fish, and I just want to make sure it won't be a total waste of time before driving 50 minutes each way to try to catch some trout in the cold.

If you think I could possibly have any luck, any advice for lures?  I was using little Powerbait minnows that were working great.

Thanks  

Well, it seems to me that rainbows bite all the time, but the big German brown trout feed almost exclusively at night. Two summers ago I had a big night on the White River in north central Arkansas fishing a white X-Rap.

That's all the encouragement I needed, thanks

I'll go out for an hour or as long as I can stand it and let you all know how I did tomorrow on this thread.

I've never had the chance to fish those BIG browns that they have on the White but I caught a 6lber on the Merced River in Yosemite on a F-7 Rapala, went back out the next night and caught two nice rainbows.  I'm sure you you'll be able to catch some at night out your way.

Well I didn't get skunked, which is nice.  Went out for about an hour and a half last night and did manage to land one fish, a brown 13-14".  Had a couple others on but lost them, and I realized afterwards it was probably because my hook was dull from getting hung up a couple times on rocks  >

That one fish did make the trip worth it though, and I'll be back out there soon enough.  They wouldn't hit the Powerbait forktail minnow, only a curlytail minnow/grub.  

Next time try the X-Rap. When the browns are actively feeding, fast action is always better than finesse. The original floating Rapala or Countdown are a couple of other lures to consider.

That's a good idea - I didn't even think of it because I hit 'em up so well the other day on those minnows/grubs.  I have a couple 65 LC Pointers that could do the trick